Meet Eric Spillman, Our Director of Business Development
We’d like to welcome Eric Spillman to the Red Team family. On January 30, Eric joined our team as Red Team’s new Director of Business Development. We asked Eric a few questions to get to know him a little more.
1. What was your first job in federal contracting?
My first job was with URS Corporation (now AECOM) as the Branch Manager of a new office in Crystal City that I set up and grew from $250K in revenues to over $2.5M in revenues in 3 years. The office is still up and running and profitable to this day, being led by a good friend of mine.
2. What drew you to the Director of Business Development position at Red Team?
When I left government to join private industry, I started out mostly doing project work but quickly discovered my talent for business development. As I went on in my career, I made a conscious decision to make that my specialty area. After running my own business for 3 years, I relished the opportunity to jump back into pure business development – which is what I truly love to do.
3. What are you most looking forward to in your new position?
I am looking forward to the challenge of presenting Red Team’s value proposition to prospective clients and showing them that outsourcing of some or all of their capture and proposal work is more cost effective, improves the quality of their bids, and increases their win percentage.
4. Have you always lived in the DC metro area? If not, what brought you to this area?
I was born in Washington D.C. and have lived here my whole life. My family hails from southern Illinois though, so I am sort of a Midwesterner at heart and find that many times when I meet someone and we get along immediately, they have Midwest roots as well.
5. What are your interests outside of work?
I enjoy birdwatching and other activities that get me out in the mountains, woods, wetlands, etc. I also enjoy my Maryland Terrapins Men’s and Women’s basketball and tailgating at Maryland football games.
6. In the past five years, what’s the most important thing you have learned?
Oh boy…well, I think the best lesson I have learned – and I think I have turned it into my philosophy for the remainder of my career/life – is that I want to work with people that I know and like and trust, and vice versa. That was the biggest factor in deciding to join Red Team Consulting.
7. Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
No…I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I think that forcing any improvements – whether it be eating better, exercising, spending more quality time with family, etc. – shouldn’t be confined to once per year.
8. What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?
Finding out that I have inherited an insanely large amount of money that would then allow me to buy a waterfront house, boat, and live out my days leisurely plying the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
9. Tell us three things most people don’t know about you…
1. When I was 19, I spent the summer working with the elephants at Wild World in Largo. I got to ride them, lead them around, feed and water them, and, yes, clean up after them.
2. I was living near San Francisco when the 1989 “World Series” earthquake hit…scariest moment in my life to this day.
3. I am a huge fan of 1980’s full size Chevy Blazers/GMC Jimmy’s – I have a restored 1988 Chevy Blazer that we all use to tailgate at University of Maryland football games – it’s red and black of course!
